The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday said the $20 million George Town "mini-hospital" is still in need of basic support services, with a shortage of qualified healthcare professionals impacting the entire Bahamas.

Speaking at the Exuma Business Outlook conference, Dr Duane Sands, pictured, minister of health, said that a single health facility in George Town was unlikely to be sufficient to covert the whole island.He added that satellite facilities in other settlements will be necessary.

"It is certainly beautiful, but we have to look at what it takes to deliver on the promise," Dr Sands said of the mini-hospital. "If we are ever going to open that operating room, we need surgeons, anesthesiologists, interns etc.

"It comes down to even more basic requirements. There is an inadequate supply of pharmacists and lab technicians, radiographers and ultra sound operators, and a lack of physical and occupational therapists. We have a lot of basic support services are needed first. "

Dr Sands stressed that a national strategic plan for healthcare was required. Touching on the debate over the Government's inability to support training for some 65 first-year medical students, he said: "On the face of it, it many seem uncaring, but what is the point of supporting 65 doctors when we have a shortage of more than 800 nurses?

"What is the point of supporting 65 doctors when, in Abaco and Exuma, there does not exist the ability to use millions of dollars in equipment because we lack a single radiographer."

The Government last month confirmed it will cap subventions to medical students at the University of the West Indies to 25. Dr Sands recently told reporters that the decision to cap assistance was an "issue of the glass half full, glass half empty". He insisted the Minnis administration's holistic approach would bring balance to the level of Government support afforded to all stakeholders in the healthcare system.